Designated a natural park in 1989, a rugged and spectacular limestone mountainous region in the north of Granada province.More >

Designated a natural park in 1989, the 12,128ha Sierra de Huétor is only a few km northeast of the provincial capital of Granada.More >

Leaving behind the impressive wooded Sierra de Huétor Natural Park, just a few kilometres east of Granada city, the terrain becomes increasingly dusty and desert-like. Guadix is located in this dry landscape and is unique for its extraordinary area of caves, where a surprisingly high number of the town's inhabitants still live.

A similarly intriguing place is 20km south of Guadix in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada; the village of La Calahorra may be unremarkable in itself, but overshadowing it is the immense bulk of one of Spain's best castles. It hides a remarkable Renaissance interior, fashioned by Italian architects and craftsmen in the early 16th century under the direction of a nobleman linked to the Catholic Monarchs.

Moving further east from Guadix is the Sierra de Baza Natural Park, which has extensive tracts of pine forests inhabited by more wildlife than people. It has excellent views from its barren limestone peaks that are covered with snow in winter. On the border with neighbouring Jaen province and the Sierra de Cazorla is another protected area, the mountainous Sierra Castril Natural Park, with a spectacularly eroded limestone landscape of deep, sheer-sided gorges and waterfalls. Its centre is Castril, a village overlooked by a huge rocky outcrop, topped by a castle, known as the Peña de Castril Natural Monument.